Santa Barbara County History
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
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Source:
A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara,
San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California
by Yda Addis Storke
Published in 1891 in Chicago by the Lewis Publishing Co.
THE SANTA BARBARA COUNTY HOSPITAL, POOR FARM, AND ALMS-HOUSE,
(for these establishments are combined in one), is situated just outside the city limits
on the east. The grounds cover an area of about ten acres, sufficing for the raising of
fruits and vegetables in a garden and orchard attached to the premises. The board of
supervisors each year appoints a county physician and a hospital superintendent, and
nurses are employed as needed. There are at present one female and about twenty male
inmates. The percentage of females seeking assistance here is small, owing to the same
reason which accounts for the fact that the character of the inmates is rapidly changing;
formerly they were mostly acute cases, but now they are mainly chronic. This is because
very many of those received here are either tramps, or sick persons who reach Santa Bar-
bara with means of support for a few days only, after which they become objects of
charity. Dr. S. B. P. Knox, who is the present incumbent, has been county physician
for some eight years in all, at one time filling the office for six years in succession.
Besides the inmates of the poor farm, the county has some forty pensioners, mostly of
Spanish-American blood, who live at their own dwellings, or with relatives, and receive
a monthly allowance of $4, $6, or $8.